How long ago was it? It feels like a hundred years, and just last year. Hang on, Terry Pratchett gave the plenary speech … When did he die?
I picked up a book in the library and it reminded me of something important. It was … Okay … it was well over a decade ago. I was at Winchester Writers’ Conference. I had attended a superb Masterclass led by Beverley Birch, and bought a copy of her Rift…
… I had had a canteen breakfast which was made glorious by the jazz band playing outside, apparently laid on by Sir Terry. I looked over the choices of workshops for today, and one of the ones I’d signed up for was about the climate crisis. Or as we called it back then, ‘climate change’ … and why aren’t we doing anything about it? And why aren’t writers writing about the future it is going to bring, or what we might do about it. There was still an assumption back then, that we would do something about it.
… come to think of it, I think it may have been the year the Age of Stupid was released.
The crazy thing is, I was the only one who turned up for this discussion called ‘why aren’t novelists writing about climate change?’ I suppose we learned why they weren’t … well obviously, some writers were writing about it. There’d been a few films too, but it wasn’t exactly a hot topic.
It’s not exactly a hot topic now, but at least The High House was in the ‘quick picks’ display in Eastbourne Library last week, so it caught my eye, and I remembered that fascinating discussion I had with two rather embarrassed would-be workshop leaders who only got me to talk to.
It’s a serious and an absorbing read, and one in which you desperately desperately want to know how it comes out, but you can’t, you mustn’t, you daren’t flick forward to read the last page. Along the way, I remembered how I grew up with the Cold War warnings all around me. My parents watched things like Threads, and I had a go at storing some food and comics in the space behind the cupboard in my bedroom, so I at least would survive. It didn’t work – I’d generally eaten the food store and read the comics by morning. A few years down the line, I heard Bob Dylan say ‘Now it seems everyone’s having them dreams’.
Well I’m not having dreams like that now. I’ve joined different groups and campaigns along the way, looking for the lever that might shift things. What now? The Labour Party’s back in the hands of big business and the Green Party are far too preoccupied with trying to stop women talking about sex to make a serious effort, so we can’t vote our way out of trouble.
So what now? I don’t know, but I’m glad I’ve read The High House. It’s a good read, a good thought-starter, and, as Margaret Heffernan explains in Wilful Blindness, you might think you make yourself feel better by burying worries but once you open your eyes and start really searching for answers, you feel better – you really do.
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Dear Reader,
Times are hard, and so the articles on this site are freely available but if you are able to support my work by making a donation, I am very grateful.
Cheers,
Kay
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Kay Green 